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A review by cyanide_latte
Things 90s Kids Realize (Volume 1) by Christopher Eric Hudspeth
informative
lighthearted
fast-paced
2.75
I wish I had more positive things to say about this book. The first time I recall seeing it was some time ago, probably in 2017, and it was already out of print by that point. I'd held out hope for a while that I would be able to find a secondhand copy eventually for a decent price somewhere, and just added it to some wishlists to see if it ever got a hit. It did recently, and I bought this copy from Thriftbooks with a lot of hope and excitement.
And on the point of nostalgia and reminding me of many things from my childhood in the 90s, this is great! It's a short but informative little book that touches on things from the 90s that presses the nostalgia button without overstaying the welcome on any one topic.
However, I am not a fan of the way this was written. It feels incredibly mean-spirited in the way it often talks about aspects of the topics it touches on, including a lot of ableism and body-shaming, and a degree of misogynistic lean in how a lot of women are spoken of. It barely scoots by without being racist on top of that, and even then I'm arching a brow. I'm sure someone's going to say I'm being too sensitive or PC or something to that effect, but the truth is you could make a book like this without being mean-spirited and exclusionary in the way you choose to talk about your topics. You can talk about the decade with full authenticity without being mean-spirited and exclusionary, and yet that wasn't done here.
Safe to say I'm disappointed. I didn't get enough value out of this book to counterbalance the way it was written and how that left a bad taste in my mouth. I intend to either sell or give away this copy to someone who I feel might appreciate it more than me.
And on the point of nostalgia and reminding me of many things from my childhood in the 90s, this is great! It's a short but informative little book that touches on things from the 90s that presses the nostalgia button without overstaying the welcome on any one topic.
However, I am not a fan of the way this was written. It feels incredibly mean-spirited in the way it often talks about aspects of the topics it touches on, including a lot of ableism and body-shaming, and a degree of misogynistic lean in how a lot of women are spoken of. It barely scoots by without being racist on top of that, and even then I'm arching a brow. I'm sure someone's going to say I'm being too sensitive or PC or something to that effect, but the truth is you could make a book like this without being mean-spirited and exclusionary in the way you choose to talk about your topics. You can talk about the decade with full authenticity without being mean-spirited and exclusionary, and yet that wasn't done here.
Safe to say I'm disappointed. I didn't get enough value out of this book to counterbalance the way it was written and how that left a bad taste in my mouth. I intend to either sell or give away this copy to someone who I feel might appreciate it more than me.